Mark your calendars! Arvest Bank at 11150 Pflumm Road in Lenexa, Kan. is partnering with RecycleWorks to host an e-waste recycling drive and cookout on Saturday, June 2 from 11:00 until 2:00. The e-waste recycling services will be provided by RecycleWorks, a locally owned and operated company that provides businesses with affordable recycling services.

During the event, you may drop off old electronics, which will be recycled domestically by certified third-party facilities that properly handle 100% of the materials. The following are some examples of items that will be accepted during the event:

CRT & LCD Monitors*

TVs, Cell Phones, PDAs, Pagers

Batteries (Lithium, Car and UPS only)

Printers, Copiers, Fax Machines

PCs and PC Parts*

Cable and Satellite boxes

Servers, Laptops

For questions about the event, please call 913-953-4000. To learn more about RecycleWorks and the services they offer, visit www.recycleworkskc.com.

*Due to the contents of lead and mercury, special care must be taken to properly dispose of CRTs and LCDs. Therefore, a small fee of $10 will be charged for these items. RecycleWorks does not offer any form of data destruction, customers assume all responsibility for information contained on a device.

Today we salute Mother Nature and all of her beauty. For some, this day means go outside and enjoy the great outdoors. For others, it’s about taking action and planting a tree or picking up trash for the day. And, for hopefully everyone, it calls for taking a vow to becoming a better citizen of the world year round, or as many people call it “go green.”

Grant it—going green calls for some lifestyle changes that, until a habit is formed, seem like work. For those already committed, the extra work for a better, cleaner environment is incentive enough (as it should be.) However, here’s an extra incentive: saving money. There are many ways a person can go green AND save green.

The Environmental Protection Agency is asking people to “Pick Five.” The gist: commit to five environmental actions that make your home and your world a cleaner and healthier place. To save you some research time, we’ve come up with five for you:

Adjust the thermostat. Turn down your thermostat a couple degrees or turn it off while not at home.

Arvest Bank in Springfield, Mo. is happy to announce that their branch on National Avenue has officially received the Gold LEED Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. After opening only a year ago and being the only bank branch in the area to receive this certification, Arvest is very excited to be recognized for their commitment to the community in this way. The following is the official release:

SPRINGFIELD, Mo., (September 21, 2011)—The Arvest Bank branch on National Avenue in Springfield, Mo. received the official certificate announcing its Gold certification by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Rating System from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).

During a reception at the branch Wednesday, September 21, Melissa Cox, representing the USGBC, presented Arvest Architectural Manager Kelly Sutterfield, Arvest Bank Springfield President Rodney Shepard and National branch Manager Marcy Dollens with the Gold certificate.

“A little more than a year ago this branch celebrated its grand opening with a month-long celebration that focused on our commitment to the community through our partnership with local non-profit service organizations. Now we get to celebrate another aspect of our commitment to the betterment of the communities we serve: our commitment to being good stewards of our natural resources,” said Marcy Dollens.

According to the USGBC website, there are six LEED certified buildings in Springfield. The Arvest Bank branch on National Avenue is the first bank branch in Springfield to achieve LEED certification.

The LEED rating system was designed by the USGBC to encourage and facilitate the development of more sustainable buildings throughout the United States. In order to receive official LEED certification, the building must meet certain prerequisites outlined by the rating system. After construction is completed, an official application is then submitted to the USGBC for approval.

The branch celebrated its grand opening on August 27, 2010, by partnering with four local charities for donations. Those charities were Habitat for Humanity in Springfield, the Humane Society of Southwest Missouri, Young Life Greater Springfield, and The Discovery Center. Each charity took part in events and activities during the grand opening month that allowed them to spread the word about their organization and encourage the community to become involved in their efforts.

(By clicking on external links, please be aware you will be leaving the Arvest website.)

Bank Technology News recently posted a case study article on Arvest Bank and our efforts to bring LEED standards to some of our newest bank branches. For those interested in learning more about LEED and why Arvest is developing LEED facilities, this article is an interesting read.

Problem: The benefits of LEED certifications are still hard to measure.
Solution: Build new branches at varying LEED levels to do real-world, cost-benefit analysis of the top-spec sites against those certified at lower LEED standards.

The jury's decidedly out on whether buildings constructed to LEED specifications are truly more efficient than those that aren't. That's because LEED buildings (those that have been certified "green" under the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design system) are always certified before any energy usage is actually measured that could conclusively prove that LEED works.

That lack of data has led Arvest Bank of Fayetteville, Ark., to test LEED concepts in its own branches. The bank is engaged in a multiyear cost-benefit analysis on LEED buildings to try to figure out the optimum spec to build to, weighing construction costs against savings on energy and facilities usage over time. Arvest is doing this by analyzing the energy consumption and building expenses across four branches built to different LEED-certified levels.

Arvest uses LEED solutions, like underground cisterns, to collect rainwater to flush toilets and irrigate landscaping at two of its gold-certified branches — one in Fayetteville and another in Springfield, Mo.

Yet Arvest is eschewing gold certification at two of its newest branches — one in Springfield, on which it broke ground June 6, and another under construction in Broken Arrow, Okla. — to instead aim for the lowest LEED level, known simply as "certified," to have a baseline means for comparison.

"After completing the four projects we'll evaluate all the materials, energy savings and costs, and then make a determination as to whether we would always try to hit LEED-certified gold or not, or always have rain harvesting systems," says Brent Vinson, site and planning coordinator at Arvest.

One of Arvest's rain harvesting cisterns recently made a bit of Arkansas history. Powering flushed toilets in the state with rainwater had typically required use of municipalities' filtration systems, or companies had to install an on-site filter for the intake water. "But for a small bank branch [the latter's] just not feasible," Vinson says. "So our engineer went to bat for us and lobbied the Department of Health and finally they allowed us to do it."

HSA Engineering, a consultant Arvest hired to support the project, successfully obtained an exemption from Arkansas' plumbing code from the state's Department of Health Review Board. After that, HSA successfully petitioned to make rainwater harvesting legal by pushing the state legislature to pass a bill in 2009 that encoded the practice into the state's plumbing guidelines, which were finalized in May of last year. Rainwater harvesting systems can be self-sustaining and cheap: Processing and treating water which need not be potable is considered expensive and wasteful by conservation proponents.

Arvest's Joyce Boulevard branch in Fayetteville became the first building of its type in Arkansas where a legal rainwater flushing system was used without a filter, Vinson says.

Arvest's newest branches are being built with other LEED-standard components, including low-volatile organic compounds that carry or emit fewer harmful chemicals than those typically contained in paint, glues, adhesives, carpet and millwork. Plus, the $11 billion-asset bank is recycling any construction materials that can be repurposed or reused. LED lights and heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems that power down or turn off depending on the time of day — or in some cases, when a room is vacant — are also included.

Another of Arvest's crucial LEED-certified components are bioswales, which are essentially modified ditches designed to remove pollutants and silt from rainwater. Instead of using the town's storm sewer and piping system in which the water ends up in a lake or stream, a bioswale channels and holds water on-site, letting it percolate into the ground to replenish the water table. The water is filtered typically through a layer of grass and then an engineered field of sand or some similar base below, which works to remove pollutants such as car oils.

Solar panels and geothermal cooling and heating, in which underground pipes feed ground air that naturally stays at a constant temperature, have been discussed, Vinson says. But business cases that would green-light such projects await development — solar is expensive and Arkansas' rocky ground makes channeling pipes tough. Regardless, Arvest's LEED efforts have so far garnered intangible marketing benefits. "People have actually come to the bank because they said they know we're doing this," Vinson says. "There have been enough of these comments that we know we're making a difference."

Arvest Bank in Springfield, MO is proud to announce the next effort to reduce our environmental impact through the building of a new branch. It will be Arvest’s second "green" branch in Springfield to be built to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards and the third companywide.

The 3,953-square-foot branch on nearly two acres is scheduled for completion by early 2012. It will satisfy U.S. Green Building Council guidelines by incorporating building elements such as a recycling center, a bioswale – which collects rainwater for filtration – and low volatile organic compound building materials.

Ground Breaking is scheduled to begin on June 6th at 3184 E. Sunshine St., the former location of Carson’s Nursery.

At Arvest, we're proud to offer many "green" banking services, such as e.Statements and Online BillPay. Check out this article in which we offer some easy energy and money-saving tips!

Investment products and services are provided by Arvest Investments, Inc., doing business as Arvest Asset Management, member FINRA/SIPC, an SEC registered investment adviser and a subsidiary of Arvest Bank. Trust services are provided by Arvest Bank. Insurance products are made available through Arvest Insurance, Inc., which is registered as an insurance agency. Insurance products are marketed through Arvest Insurance, Inc., but are underwritten by insurance companies.
Securities and Insurance Products: Not Insured by FDIC or any Federal Government Agency, May Lose Value, Not a Deposit of or Guaranteed by a Bank or any Bank Affiliate.